Basil Jet wrote:

On 2012\10\23 00:42, Bruce wrote:
Basil Jet wrote:

On 2012\10\22 20:39, Bruce wrote:
The company that makes London Taxis (LTI) has called in the
Administrators.

http://tinyurl.com/8fqam4x


No doubt Addison Lee's retiring boss will tell his drivers that if they
can write off one of the existing taxi fleet, he will pay their fines...


The LTI cabs are built like Army trucks.

Wasn't it you who showed me up last time I said that? You poured scorn
on the ladder chassis IIRC.


I did, but weren't we discussing survivability of the occupants in an
accident?

In which case, give me a modern design any time, with progressive
crumple zones front and rear and a rigid safety cell for the
passengers rather than a primitive army truck with a ladder chassis.
In a contest between the two, I would far rather step out of the rigid
safety cell of a car-based design that looks wrecked (but which saved
my life) than be carried on a stretcher from a truck that looks
relatively undamaged but transferred much more of the energy of a
collision to its occupants.

One of the car programmes on television (can't recall which) tested a
1980s Volvo against a 2010s Renault Modus in an offset head-on
collision. Survivability was far better in the lightweight Modus,
which looked severely damaged, then in the Volvo. The
state-of-the-art design of the Renault meant that its crumple zones
absorbed most of the energy of the collision leaving the rigid
passenger safety cell intact.


I have a feeling that it
would take more than one of Addison Lee's vehicles to write one off.

They have dozens of the things unused in their Granby Terrace yard,
allegedly because they are haemorrhaging drivers since Hailo started
eating Addison Lee's lunch.


The trouble with Addison Lee's business model is that it is there for
everyone to see, to emulate, to copy or improve on. It's dog eat dog
out there.

On Tue, 23 Oct 2012 09:54:48 +0100
Bruce wrote:
safety cell of a car-based design that looks wrecked (but which saved
my life) than be carried on a stretcher from a truck that looks
relatively undamaged but transferred much more of the energy of a
collision to its occupants.

Thats not the only problem with chassis designs. If the impact occurs above
the level of the chassis rails then the chassic can submarine under the
obstruction and the entire body - which has virtually no strength - can
be crushed or even torn right off of it.

B2003

On Tue, 23 Oct 2012 08:54:00 +0000 (UTC), d
wrote:

On Tue, 23 Oct 2012 00:42:55 +0100
Bruce wrote:
The LTI cabs are built like Army trucks. I have a feeling that it

Translation: Its a road car in 2012 still being built using a ladder frame
chassis.

The company really only has itself to blame for its downfall for charging
silly money for an antique because it had a monopoly. Well, not any longer
and when they realised they'd have to up their game what did they do? Improve
the taxi? Design something modern? Nope, they used cheap **** components from
china. Genius.

It's likely that Geely will buy Manganese Bronze cheaply from the
receiver, sans debts. The taxis are already mainly based on Chinese
components, so they might as well assemble the London taxis in
Shanghai, as they already do the cabs destined for other markets. Or
maybe they could use another of their European brands to do it: Volvo.

On Tue, 23 Oct 2012 13:13:17 +0100
Recliner wrote:
It's likely that Geely will buy Manganese Bronze cheaply from the
receiver, sans debts. The taxis are already mainly based on Chinese

Possibly.

components, so they might as well assemble the London taxis in
Shanghai, as they already do the cabs destined for other markets. Or

Are there many other markets? That whole "traditional" british schtick only
takes you so far. If the vehicle is crap no one will buy it unless they've
got no other option, especially at the silly money they were charging.
It sank without trace in the US when they tried to flog it there IIRC.

B2003

On 23/10/2012 04:05, Basil Jet wrote:
On 2012\10\23 00:42, Bruce wrote:
Basil Jet wrote:

On 2012\10\22 20:39, Bruce wrote:
The company that makes London Taxis (LTI) has called in the
Administrators.

http://tinyurl.com/8fqam4x


No doubt Addison Lee's retiring boss will tell his drivers that if they
can write off one of the existing taxi fleet, he will pay their fines...


The LTI cabs are built like Army trucks.

Wasn't it you who showed me up last time I said that? You poured scorn
on the ladder chassis IIRC.

I have a feeling that it
would take more than one of Addison Lee's vehicles to write one off.

They have dozens of the things unused in their Granby Terrace yard,
allegedly because they are haemorrhaging drivers since Hailo started
eating Addison Lee's lunch.

It takes at least a couple of years to qualify as hackney cab driver,
however, doesn't it?

On 2012\10\23 09:54, Bruce wrote:

The trouble with Addison Lee's business model is that it is there for
everyone to see, to emulate, to copy or improve on. It's dog eat dog
out there.

Except that the economies of scale in the minicab industry are wildly
good, and AL is more than 10 times the size of the second largest
minicab company.

wrote:
On Tue, 23 Oct 2012 13:13:17 +0100
Recliner wrote:
It's likely that Geely will buy Manganese Bronze cheaply from the
receiver, sans debts. The taxis are already mainly based on Chinese

Possibly.

components, so they might as well assemble the London taxis in
Shanghai, as they already do the cabs destined for other markets. Or

Are there many other markets? That whole "traditional" british schtick only
takes you so far. If the vehicle is crap no one will buy it unless they've
got no other option, especially at the silly money they were charging.
It sank without trace in the US when they tried to flog it there IIRC.

It's not looking good:
"The administrators of Manganese Bronze, the Coventry-based company that
makes London black cabs, are making 156 staff redundant with immediate
effect.

The announcement from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) comes just a day after
it said it was in talks with an "encouraging" list of parties interested in
the company's rescue.

The redundancies account for more than half of the firm's 274 UK employees.

The Unite union said it was outraged at the "ruthless sacking" of staff.

The job losses affect both the group's head office and manufacturing site
in Coventry, with 99 out of 176 employees there being made redundant."
-- end quote
More in http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20160247

On Wed, 31 Oct 2012 19:54:00 -0500
Recliner wrote:
The redundancies account for more than half of the firm's 274 UK employees.

The Unite union said it was outraged at the "ruthless sacking" of staff.

The job losses affect both the group's head office and manufacturing site
in Coventry, with 99 out of 176 employees there being made redundant."

Sounds like its on its way to becoming nothing more than another badge
aquisition by the chinese. Probably the chinese plan all along - don't provide
any financing , wait until firm goes bust then buy assets and shift production
to china.

B2003

In message
,
at 19:54:00 on Wed, 31 Oct 2012, Recliner
remarked:

The Unite union said it was outraged at the "ruthless sacking" of staff.

Perhaps they could have a whip-round at union HQ to pay the wages for
the time being?
--
Roland Perry

On Thu, 1 Nov 2012 09:25:50 +0000 (UTC), d
wrote:

On Wed, 31 Oct 2012 19:54:00 -0500
Recliner wrote:
The redundancies account for more than half of the firm's 274 UK employees.

The Unite union said it was outraged at the "ruthless sacking" of staff.

The job losses affect both the group's head office and manufacturing site
in Coventry, with 99 out of 176 employees there being made redundant."

Sounds like its on its way to becoming nothing more than another badge
aquisition by the chinese. Probably the chinese plan all along - don't provide
any financing , wait until firm goes bust then buy assets and shift production
to china.

I was surprised just how small the operation already was, even before
these latest redundancies. I assume that most of the real
manufacturing must already have moved to China, with only final
assembly happening in the UK. I don't suppose recent London cabs
actually have very much UK content, so it's not much of a loss if the
British facade is finally removed.